31 entries from January 2016

Chops, steaks or fish fillets are perfect for a quick meal, as long as you cook them properly. Pan searing is one of our favorite cooking methods and once you master it, you're never far from a good meal. You need to start with a good, heavy bottomed pan and give it a nice coating of oil. Don't freak out abut the oil, most of it will stay in the pan. Keep in mind that if the surface of the meat or fish is not in contact with the oil it won't brown properly. Set the pan over medium high heat and when it just starts to smoke, add your protein. It should sizzle. After 30 seconds or so, flip your chops/steaks/fillets and reduce the heat to medium. Many people leave the heat too high and that causes the protein to char at the edges, You're looking for a nice golden brown crust over the entire surface and it's imperative that your heat is just high enough to sizzle and not smoke and burn. Flip every 30 seconds or so, until you have a beautiful crust on both sides of your protein. Once everything is a deep golden brown on both sides, add a knob of butter and some fresh herbs and baste until the butter melts and the herbs brown slightly but do not burn. Use a spatula to transfer your protein to a warm plate and let it rest. If your proteins are on the thicker side, cover them loosely with an inverted plate to encourage a little extra carry over cooking, if they are on the thinner side, just make sure the plate is in a warm spot so they don't cool off too much before you're ready to serve them. It's been my experience that using this method, once a perfect sear is achieved, things are pretty close to perfectly cooked. (Yes that's a little magical but it really does work.) Pour out the excess fat and add vegetables to saute and serve alongside or make a pan sauce to serve over the top. I usually do vegetables instead of sauce because then I have a one pan meal. Quick, easy, and super-delicious.

Amaya is a bit of a candy hound. It's something that popped up this past year and it's not something that makes us particularly happy. On the bright side, she is choosy about her candy and when she gets some of her favorite stuff, she eats it with all of her senses. She'll admire the colors or coating, and comment on how delicious (or not) the candy appears. She'll sink her teeth into the surface of a candy to crack the coating and then sniff at it to check out the aroma. As she eats the candy, she often pulls it out of her mouth so she can see the changes that she is experiencing on her tongue. Every time the texture changes, she'll take another peek. Admittedly this is another habit that does not always please me, but at least it's evidence that we are raising a thoughtful eater. She loves how the slightly sandy texture of the Mike and Ike coating slowly rubs smooth and then she sinks her teeth into the chewy center and enjoys the sticky texture and they way the flavor coats her tongue. Amaya likes to discuss what's happening in her mouth, why the confections are so enjoyable, and which flavors are better and why.

While she does eat more candy than I would like, at least she eats it with passion and emotion. She knows that she can't have it all the time so she savors her opportunities to indulge. It's fun to witness her pleasure and it reminds me to take the time to slow down and enjoy my own meals. Years of working in kitchens and scarfing down meals at odd moments has left me with the bad habit of inhaling my food. A slowly savored meal is always a conscious indulgence and I'm thankful that Amaya's eating habits have slowed down my own. I'd rather learn from her habit of eating at her own pace, rather than teach her to fast forward through a meal.

Anyone following this blog probably knows we are in the process of selling our house in NH and moving back to PA. There are lots of reasons why we are doing this, almost none of which are about NH. Anyway, whenever you buy or sell a house, inspections are in order. Because we have well water, a water test was performed. This was not a major concern for us. We had the water tested before we moved in an annual water test just a few months ago. Unfortunately there was one one positive marker that came up and that was for arsenic.

Arsenic is not uncommon in New England wells, there's a reason why the test is always included in the water profile. When we moved in, we were aware of the arsenic in the water and installed a reverse osmosis system that we used for all drinking and cooking water. What we discovered the other day was the the arsenic levels in our water had increased and that a mitigation system in addition to the single R.O. drinking line was recommended. We are still below the levels where arsenic can be absorbed through the skin but since the level has risen it makes sense to take care of things before we hit the red zone. My question was why the arsenic wasn't detected during the annual water test? Apparently since we didn't have a mitigation system in place it wasn't included in the panel and neither of us remembered to add it in.

The easy answer is that we though we had taken care of it. We had installed a pretty comprehensive water treatment system with a reverse osmosis line for drinking water and although we made a point of only drinking the RO water, it was easy to forget why we had it installed in the first place. It was easy to become complacent.

Complacency is an insidious thing. You think you've got things under control so you don't question. You don't shake the foundations to make sure they are secure. Sure things change slowly, but they do change and that's why it's important to ask questions, to re-visit standards, and to update your approach to things. We're doing that now. Thinking about what we do and how we approach things to see if we need to shake things up a bit. Change is good. Ruts slowly develop around where you're standing if you're not paying attention. So ask yourself, what haven't I changed in a while? Give yourself a little inspection to see where things may have gone off track and then figure out how to make things even better than they were in the first place.

We use egg washes and cream washes on baked goods to apply sheen, adhere toppings and develop browning. The other day we had a small amount of maple syrup in a container and were working with variations of our cream cheese cookies. I took the maple syrup and mixed in a few tablespoons of heavy cream. The blend of cream and maple syrup was delicious. I used it to brush on the top of the cream cheese cookies I was working on. It added a rich sweetness to the cookies. And the residual mix in the bowl was devoured by me.

We purchased half of skin on and bone in pork belly. We scored the skin with a serrated knife and seasoned the slab of meat with salt. We put the belly into a shallow roasting pan in a 250°F oven and roasted it for 6 hours. We removed it from the oven and let it rest in the pan for 45 minutes. We turned the broiler on high and put the pan back in the oven on a lower rack. We moved the belly around in the oven to evenly crisp and puff the skin. We pulled the chicharon topped belly from the oven and let it rest for another 30 minutes. We sliced the belly into thick slices and indulged in crispy, fatty, juicy meaty porcine feast.

I am enamored with cream cheese cookie dough. After making non-traditional rugelach I began tinkering with our recipe. I increased the amount of sugar and salt. I also added baking powder for a slight leavening. Then I didn't make rugelach. I opted to roll the dough out on granulated sugar in the style of arnheim biscuits. What we lost in flavor development from the yeast leavening we gained from the cream cheese. And the simplicity and speed with which this dough can be made makes it even more alluring.

We spread a filling of ricotta, shredded mozzarella and parmigiano reggiano over our ramenized lasagna noodles. We topped the filling with slices of pepperoni and rolled them into parcels.

We placed the lasagna parcels into a baking pan with braised beef ragout. We topped the parcels with fresh mozzarella and baked the individual lasagnas for 1 hour at 400°F. We removed them from the oven and let them rest for 15 minutes. We scooped the lasagna parcels onto our plates and devoured them.

The ramenization of the noodles gave them a nice chew. They were not mushed out. The following day our leftovers were equally resilient, with great texture and bite.

Our lasagna and other baked pastas have now gained a simple upgrade to an old idea.

Baked pastas suffer from soft noodles. Today we tackled that problem. We applied our ramenization technique to lasagna noodles. The premise is the soaking of the noodles in an alkaline bath will hydrate and texturize the uncooked noodles. We are then free to make a baked pasta, eliminating the need to blanch the noodles and increasing there bite in the process.

A name can make something feel approachable or foreign. Today we dove into Rugelach, that rolled cookie bursting with dried fruit and nuts, made with a cream cheese and butter dough. The intricate shape of each small pastry combined the seemingly exotic name, makes it appear to be foreign, exotic, and difficult to produce. We set out to make one of our favorite cookies easier to handle and even more delicious. We made our dough with a blend of brown and white sugar, and used equal parts cream cheese and butter for the fat. Our filling was a blend of fruit preserves and dried blueberries, because that's what was in our pantry, though any dried fruit or small chips would work here. We rolled them into one long loge, chilled it, and then sliced it into individual cookies for baking. We finished them with a sprinkling of coarse sugar for a little extra crunch. Though we may call them cream cheese cookies, an experienced eye will see that it is Rugelach that magically appear on our table.

Today we made pimento cheese. We were making grilled cheese sandwiches. Normally we will put a fine layer of mayonnaise inside the slices of bread. Today we mixed the mayo with the cheese. And we added a jar of roasted red peppers. This is not ground breaking. What we observed when we made the sandwich was the mayo and cheese melted together into a fluid and hot cheese sauce. Our ratio of cheese to mayonnaise was off. Or perhaps it was spot on for another application. My first reaction was to plan on adding shredded mozzarella to the remaining pimento cheese. It would add a stringy elasticity to the mixture. And it would help adjust the mayonnaise to cheese ratio. I pondered the fluid filling further. In its current state it would make a delightful ravioli filling. It would also be great folded into mashed potatoes for a variation on aligote potatoes. Without a starting point there is not point of reference to start to build from. Once you find your pathway, you can take it anywhere.

I bought a can of nitro-coffee. The key ingredient was magic. Really, magic. In a can. On an ingredient list. I'm still baffled. But I guess who's to say there was no magic in the can? It's magic after all.

A few weeks ago we were at the Arcobaleno factory. I had the opportunity to run a batch of noodles with a new shape, honeycomb. The noodle has ridges and pockets. It is sturdy and beautiful. With the shape in hand it becomes time to work on sauces to compliment it. I'm sure at least a few variations will feature honey to play off the shape.

...are a good time to take stock and make sure that you still love what you're doing and feel that spark of inspiration that started you on your path in the first place. Happy Anniversary to our good friend Steve Stallard! It's been 10 years of delicious maple syrup and other good things. We're so glad that he's still inspired to make ingredients that make us happy.

We have been running Curiosity Doughnuts for just over 3 months. When we opened we had spent hours upon hours making and frying dough. The doughnuts improved during our trials. We took the trials into action when we opened in Stockton Market in October. We have been make doughnuts weekly for a several months now. Each week we begin again. Making dough is a methodical process. We adjust, tinker, explore, and question every aspect of the process. Observing the results and recording our discoveries allows us to improve. It's funny because we are actually consulting ourselves on this project. We apply our curious ability to question the standards and combine the disparate elements to continue to make even better doughnuts and frozen custard evolve. And this makes us extremely happy and well fed.

Finding a truffle in the fridge sparked an impromptu upgrade to our rice. We grated the truffle into steamed rice. We stirred in a few knobs of butter and finished it with sea salt. The heady aroma of the truffle perfumed the grains of sweet jasmine rice and turned our dinner into something extraordinary.

For a recent project we made a blend of equal parts salt and sugar. We added lemon zest to the mixture and coated loins cod. After applying the seasoned mixture we topped the cod with sliced jalapenos. We wrapped the loin in plastic wrap and vacuum sealed the fish. We refrigerated the fish for 4 hours. We removed the cod from its wrapping and washed off the curing mixture. We patted the fish dry. We cooked the fish in the CVap for 30 minutes, until the cod just flaked. The fish was seasoned and fragrant with a hint of the fresh jalapeno. The quick curing imparted flavor quickly and efficiently. A useful technique that is easy to extrapolate and build upon.

I was driving from NH to PA, on my weekly commute to fire up Curiosity Doughnuts. At one of the many rest stops I saw a gigantic snickers bar for sale. It was to be sliced and shared. The size of the bar was massive. It was Willy Wonka-esque in stature. I really wanted to buy it. I didn't. I'm good with exploring the idea of massive candy bars. And there opposites tiny candy bars. And perhaps decorating a gigantic bar with miniature candy bars. Could we wrap the huge bar in a dough and bake it? Sure we could bread and fry it. And if we froze it and shaved it on the slicer we would have a delicious garnish. Especially to top our frozen snickers pie.

Our original doughnut crumb cookies were a first draft. They were tender and cakey. We baked them as a full sheet and punched them out as miniature doughnuts. They were cute. They were not crushworthy. Today we reformatted our cookie dough. We started with our doughnut crumbs. We used our doughnut crumb sugar as the sweetener. We eliminated whole eggs in the dough, looking to make a classic shortbread rather than a cakey styled cookie. The rest of the ingredient list contained butter, flour (not that much) and salt. We combined the ingredients in the food processor and pureed them mixture until it formed We removed the dough and used our hands to squeeze the dough together. When the dough came together we formed it into logs and wrapped it in plastic wrap. We refrigerated the dough overnight. We cut the dough into 1/3 inch thick discs and placed them on a parchment lined sheet pan. We topped the cookies with sprinkles and baked them for 30 minutes at 300°F. We cooled the cookies on the baking pan. We used a cutter to trim the cookies that spread a bit during baking. The resulting cookies were tender, crisp and buttery rich. They tasted of a great cookie, accented by the idea of a doughnut.

These cookies are delicious. They are exciting. And they are a catalyst for more to come. Being able to utilize crumbs, in this case doughnuts, to make a delicious cookies opens our minds to possibilities.

We started with left over doughnuts and ground them into fine crumbs. We spread these crumbs out on parchment lined baking pans, toasted them at 300°F for 30 minutes, and then let them cool on the pans. We ground the toasted crumbs to a finer state in a food processor. We mixed 1 part of the toasted and ground doughnut crumbs with 3 parts sugar to create doughnut crumb sugar. The initial idea was to make a sugar for coating doughnuts. The benefit of having it on hand is we can use it in other applications: from doughnut shortbread 2.0 to doughnut crumb baklava to doughnut crumb pie crust to the sugar used in our new-fashioned doughnuts. The possibilities are endless.

I don't get sick very often (knock wood) but when I do it's usually a doozy. It hit the afternoon of my birthday and laid me low for the next two days. Now I'm up and about, with lingering droopiness and a wretched cough that settled into my chest. On the bright side now that I'm off my large dose of Alleve I can use my favorite home remedy to help calm the cranky cough. I mix equal parts water and bourbon, the water is necessary in case I want more than one over the course of an evening, and put them in a mug in the microwave for 1 minute. Then I stir in a spoonful of honey and a generous squeeze of fresh lemon juice and sip slowly to soothe the savage beast. It's calming and delicious, giving me comfort in body and spirit. How many over the counter remedies can say that?

I've been working on a new milk bread recipe and not every loaf comes out the way I'd like it too. The upside is that no matter how imperfect a loaf is, very often it still will make delicious toast. It's a breakfast habit that we had gotten away from and are re--embracing this winter. When you make it from your own bread you can slice it exactly the way you like it. Mine is a little thinner, Alex's tends to be on the thick side. We both like it perfectly golden brown and while I am very happy with a generous dose of salted butter, he likes his thickly spread with butter and jam. It's a classic combination that each person can make their own. Letting everyone make their own toast is an easy way to ensure that we all start our day getting exactly what we want.

I finally figured out bone broth. It does not need to be made from bones. Heck it doesn't need to even be a meat derivative. It is the broth that warms the aching bones. Create that. Don't worry about anything else.

Oh, you want to know how? It depends on whose bones are aching doesn't it?

We roasted the meatloaf on a bed of par-boiled potatoes and onions. The juices and the fat from the blend of meats seeped into the vegetables. After cooking the loaf for 45 minutes at 350°F we topped it with tomato sauce. We cooked it for an additional 15 minutes and turned off the oven. We let the meatloaf braciole rest in the oven for 15 minutes and then an additional 15 minutes on the counter. The meatloaf sliced beautifully. The cheese melted into the broccoli. The meatloaf seasoned the broccoli. The parts remained separate. Together they created a delicious whole.

Utilizing the odd bits after the second roll of doughnut dough has been on our to do list, well, forever. We have fried up these misshapen pieces and used them in our bread pudding. As we cooked the pieces up we noticed there irregular shapes. We ate them and enjoyed the variety of textures from crispy to tender and moist. We needed to find a way to share these delicious bites. Today we fried the pieces up and dusted them with powdered sugar. We named the pieces debris. Now guests that visit the shop can pick up a bag of doughnut debris. Recycling at its finest.

I was walking through the supermarket and I caught a glimpse of sliced braciole out of the corner of my eye. For a second I thought it was a braciole meatloaf. It wasn’t. But the idea was to good to let go. I bought a blend of pork, veal and beef. I mixed in bread crumbs, parmesan, eggs, and soy sauce. I brought the mixture together. And flattened it out into a large rectangle. I topped the meat mixture with broccoli pieces and fresh mozzarella. I rolled the meatloaf like braciole and wrapped it in plastic wrap. I am refrigerating the loaf overnight to let the flavors blend and texture set. Tomorrow we will be roasting the braciole inspired loaf on a bed of par-cooked potatoes and sliced onions. It is still up for debate whether or not we take the loaf all the way and smother it in tomato sauce as we do with real braciole. It may well have to happen.

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